Item Mask on Particles/Replicators

[Dentzz]

In modo if I render particles and have them be render-able by attaching them to a replicator I can then attach an Item Mask to that replicator system. Using that item mask I am able to shade the replicated items using things like particle ID or Age as they are attached to the system instead of the prototype. While item masks do seem to work in Vray when trying to attach an item mask to a replicator system the Item mask seems to be ignored and will just default to the Mask/Shader that is attached to the Replicator Prototype.
Is V-Ray able or even need to get info from particle systems for shading purposes or is there another way to handle this?

[vladimir.nedev]

I see now, currently this is not supported. You can group the Prototype items together, have the mask on the group and this way you can apply a common texture to all of them, with each having its own separate material.
But I realize this is not the same functionality like masking on the Replicator itself.
From the particle attributes we have only the particle ID at the moment. Might be possible to get the rest, but I am not sure if it is possible with the older API, it might require the Render Cache, I am not sure.

For the particle ID, you will need to create a Variation texture, a Gradient texture with source Particle Effects -> Particle ID won't work. But this should be easy to fix.

I will add these on the todo list, but I can't tell when we will get to them.

What particle attributes do you usually use when shading them ?

Greetings,
Vladimir Nedev

[Dentzz]

I see now, currently this is not supported. You can group the Prototype items together, have the mask on the group and this way you can apply a common texture to all of them, with each having its own separate material.
But I realize this is not the same functionality like masking on the Replicator itself.
From the particle attributes we have only the particle ID at the moment. Might be possible to get the rest, but I am not sure if it is possible with the older API, it might require the Render Cache, I am not sure.

For the particle ID, you will need to create a Variation texture, a Gradient texture with source Particle Effects -> Particle ID won't work. But this should be easy to fix.

I will add these on the todo list, but I can't tell when we will get to them.

Sounds good

What particle attributes do you usually use when shading them ?

I usually just use ID and Age